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When web design expert Ben Hunt set out to quantify the difference between an ordinary web site and a great one, he expected to find the key in design simplicity. But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here.

Ben Hunt is Principal Consultant for Scratchmedia Ltd. He operates webdesignfromscratch.com, which provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 web developers each month. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 15 years, and is considered a leader in the web usability industry.

Forewords by Ken McCarthy, founder of the System Seminar, and Drayton Bird, Drayton Bird Associates.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This advice can transform your web site's success

When web design expert Ben Hunt set out to quantify the difference between an ordinary web site and a great one, he expected to find the key in design simplicity. But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here.

About the Author

Ben Hunt teaches web designers, developers and marketers how to make websites that work. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 17 years. He is considered a thought leader in web usability, web design and online marketing fields. His site webdesignfromscratch.com provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 visitors each month.

As a small business owner who's been involved in several website designs -- and paid thousands of dollars to 'experts' on upping the conversion rates on web visits -- I say "read this book before you hire any experts." The reason? After reading this you may not see a need to spend thousands of dollars on 'experts.' In fact, I was in the middle of a website overhaul at the same time I got this book, and reading it saved me plenty of hours (read: $$) with my designer.

What I liked:- Hunt acts as a consultant/advisor, not a theorist or artist.- Hunt's "if/then approach makes his advice easy to grasp. No fluff.- Photos showing the nuances and how little changes made big differences.

What I didn't like:- LOL ... Nothing. I liked it all.

Take this book and Jakob Nielsen's "Prioritizing Web Usability" and you have a wealth of information for designing websites that bring results (read: $$).

I've been building websites for 12 years and have long believed that most sites are a waste of money; they look pretty but don't generate profits for the client. I tell prospects that if no one can find your site - and they don't do what you want (buy, donate, sign up, order) when they get there - it's money down the drain.

Still, web design courses have focused on how a site LOOKS ("graphic design") or the technical aspects of building a site. Ben Hunt goes beyond that. He marries technical knowledge with solid marketing fundamentals in a clear and compelling way. And best of all he provides examples of sites he's redesigned, explaining the reasoning behind each revision.

If you design websites, if you do copywriting for websites, if you simply want to understand how "online marketing" is SUPPOSED to work - get this book!

I've been developing web application for 10 years and the one area that I have always been weak in is reliable conversion rates for my clients. I can deal with the complexity of the software, but the presentation and flow of the message for the audience is a different animal all together. For those of you who work in the online industry, you are probably aware of the wide array of skillsets required to take a concept through the entire lifecycle to completion. I've only read through a portion of this book, but so far, Ben is conveying the right message for professionals in my field. Having to deal with servers, development frameworks, existing applications (cms/ecom), design opinions and copy can make any web project way more complicated than it has to be. The focus on simplicty in design, copy and analysis that Ben has put together will definitely help bring me into the minds of the visitor for a better conversion rate and ultimately successful projects.

I highly recommend this book to all online professionals of all backgrounds.

For almost any business, having a website is as necessary as having a phone number. Unfortunately far too many businesses have websites that simply don't work. Most websites are designed using what Ben Hunt, the author, calls the "first best guess" method - that is the sites are designed based on someone's best guess. After being published, there is often very little updating. The websites remain static. These websites are generally poor at attracting traffic and poor at converting the traffic.

Convert teaches a new approach. You start by asking questions like: "Who am I communicating with? What do they want? How can I attract them? And how can I get them to do what the site needs to do?"

The book has a very logical and straightforward method for teaching a new approach. In part one of the book, he gives the basic principles of how search engines work. Next he discusses the fundamentals of marketing.

Then he introduces the Awareness Ladder. In the past companies presented one marketing message. The Awareness Ladder concept starts with the fact that all prospects will not have the same level of awareness about the problem/solution your product/service offers. You need to engage with the prospect where they currently are on the Awareness Ladder.

Part two centers around specific design concepts to maximize conversions. Ben takes each step of the AIDA principle and shows how to apply it to website design. There are specific examples and case studies supporting each principle.

He goes into great detail about how to use Google Analytics and Google Web Optimizer.

The book is full of specific examples of what worked or what didn't work and why.Read more ›

Ostensibly this is a book about web design and conversion optimization. Indeed, in my opinion it is a masterpiece in both of these categories - a genuine double category killer.

Alas, that is only the beginning. Recognizing that for a commercial website it is somewhat meaningless to talk about web design separately from market research, search engine optimization, advertising and copywriting, the author proceeds to provide an excellent, integrated overview of all of these subjects. The end result is what I suspect is the first successful attempt to articulate a unified theory of Internet marketing.

What is most impressive is the quality of the discussion on so many related topics. For example, although many of the points on copywriting are familiar from other sources, in my opinion the end result is a book with copywriting insight at least the equal of the excellent books on the subject by Bob Bly and Drayton Bird.

A couple of chapters are devoted to a discussion of the "awareness ladder," by which people climb through various stages of awareness of your product or service on the way to becoming a customer. While some might argue that this concept is not entirely original, I believe that the depth and clarity of the author's descriptions in this area break important new ground. Do some Google searches on the subject after reading the book and you'll see what I mean.

If you aren't familiar with the "awareness ladder" and think it sounds like a bunch of hokey marketing theory, think again. After reading this book you'll know exactly how to link the elements of your website together according to stages of awareness in such a way as to maximize conversions.Read more ›

More About the Author

I have been creating websites since 1994. I have always looked beyond the thrill of sexy graphics, being interested in usability, SEO, and now conversion!

To me, web design is all marketing. It should support powerful communication, whatever it is you need to communicate. So graphics are important, but getting the right message to the right people is even more so.